In the United States viewers are now inundated by an overabundance of sports betting ads when they watch any major sporting event. Younger adults may not be aware that this wasn’t always the case. In fact, 32 years ago in 1992 President George H. W. Bush outlawed sports betting nationwide with the “Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act” (PASPA). The underlying reasons this law was put in place was to prevent the corruption of sport competitions, maintain the integrity of sports and to curtail bribery. But there was no mention at the time of preventing addiction issues or protecting the welfare of individuals and their families from the suffering that sports betting causes.
After the law went into effect, Nevada was the only state where people could legally bet on sports because they held a grandfathered status for legal betting dating as far back as 1949 which gave them immunity from the new law. However, people could also gamble on the historic river boats that circumvented their states local land-based laws as well as cruise ships with casinos that defied the law by navigating into international waters.
It was only after May 14, 2018 when the Supreme Court ruled to strike down the PASPA law that opened up the flood gates for all states to allow and regulate legalized sports betting.
To learn more about the history of sports betting, you can view this well‑crafted video from the 1440 Daily Digest that provides an informative synopsis of how we got here.